Did you know that the profession of "coffee taster" exists? Yes Yes ! You can, if you wish, become a specialist in coffee tasting. If you want to spend days testing, deciphering, describing and rating coffees, we will see how to do it at the end of this article. In the meantime, for the simply curious and coffee enthusiasts (who want why not, "cupper" at home), I will try to present to you the best of what is called Cupping, or coffee tasting.
And yes, there is so much to say… I will do my best to present to you everything there is to know on the subject, starting with a simple question: What is cupping used for?
What is cupping used for?
Coffee cupping , also called " Brazilian tasting ", is one of the most important stages in the life of a coffee shop. Although it is necessary to pay attention to all the stages, from the culture to the service in the coffee shop, passing through the roasting… Cupping is an essential stage in order not to disappoint the palate of its customers.
Whether in the well-established market of industrial coffee, or even on the side of specialty coffee, cupping is a must. Of course, the processes can vary, as much as the quality standards, which are obviously not the same for all market players. We will also see that cupping does not necessarily have the same objectives depending on the range of coffee that is at stake.
Cupping will make it possible to distinguish aromas and flavors in order to be able to describe a coffee as precisely as possible to customers (professionals or individuals). But also and above all, Brazilian-style tasting will prevent reselling a coffee that does not meet our company's standards, or even worse, selling bad coffee to its customers. It can therefore happen that coffees are rejected.
Detecting coffee flaws
One of the major objectives of cupping for manufacturers is to detect defects that could affect the taste of coffee by consumers. Thus, some batches of coffee may have undergone poor post-harvest treatment (too long fermentation, unsuitable storage, etc.) which will promote the appearance of problems in the taste of the coffee.
Describe the coffee
Cupping also allows you to take the time to compare several coffees, and to attribute specific aromatic and taste characteristics to each . Thus, the end customer will be able to have a glimpse of what awaits him in the mouth by simply reading the information written on the packaging or the product sheet.
Although in France, part of coffee consumers do not know everything that can hide in a cup, a growing part of lovers of good coffees ask to know the taste characteristics of the coffees they buy. You might be one of them if you read this article. You like to know where your coffee comes from, but also what awaits you once your coffee is served, and that's normal, especially if you already know your preferences!
Without cupping, it would be difficult to describe the aromatic and taste notes directly to the customer as precisely as possible, as well as the body and the balance...
Rate a coffee
Coffees can be cupped for the purpose of assigning them a rating. This makes it possible to compare the quality in the mouth of different coffees. Each actor can define his rating system. But when it comes to quality coffees, the scale to follow is that of the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association).
It is a worldwide association which contributes to the good development of specialty coffee all over the world. Thus, the best coffees in the world have a score between 80 and 100 (although I have never had the opportunity to come across a coffee with a score of 100/100 👀).
You will find a more detailed explanation of SCA scoring later in this article.
Who cup?
You should know that cupping can be done by all actors in the coffee supply chain. Thus, coffee growers sometimes carry out cupping sessions themselves .
For importers, as well as for many exporters, it is a must.
Finally, resellers who buy their coffees from importers should also carry out this exercise if they want to ensure the good quality of the batches purchased.
When it comes to grading coffees against SCA criteria, so-called “ Q-Graders ” take care of it. The latter have undergone training dedicated to cupping and passed exams. Their palate is considered capable of evaluating a coffee according to the very specific criteria of the SCA. (If you are interested, we talk about it at the end of this article 😉).
When a coffee needs to be graded, the Coffee Quality Institute raffles 3 Q-graders around the world and sends them a sample of the coffee in question. Then, an average is calculated from the 3 ratings and transmitted to the producer.
Otherwise, if you are not a coffee professional, it is also possible to make a cupping coffee while traveling, like during my very first cupping session that I had the chance to do in Panama. If you like coffee and like to travel, do not hesitate to inquire and look for plantations that offer this type of tourist discovery!
How does a cupping session take place?
There are no hard and fast rules to follow when it comes to coffee tasting. For example, each importer has their own habits and ways of evaluating a batch of coffee. However, since we are real coffee lovers, (and especially, good coffees) we are going to focus today on cupping according to the SCA .
This association is indeed the benchmark for specialty coffee. The best coffees in the world are evaluated and rated thanks to this precise protocol. These cupping rules set up by the SCA, make it possible to tend to a precise and homogeneous evaluation of (good) coffees all over the world. Thus, it is recommended to use specific equipment and to respect key steps during a coffee cupping session .
Preparing for the cupping session
To make a good cupping coffee, you have to prepare well, and for that it is essential to get the right equipment, as well as the coffee of course!
Regarding the material, the SCA offers a list of elements to use so that all cupping sessions, regardless of the country, are carried out in the same way. This makes it possible to homogenize the process so that all tasting conditions are the same everywhere. Here is the material to have during the tasting:
- Roasted coffee
- Water (at 93°)
- The SCA “Agtron” color scale (brown colored discs, with different shades to assess roast)
- A coffee grinder
- Kettle
- A thermometer
- A scale
- 5 cups per coffee
- 2 cups/glasses filled with water (for rinsing spoons and taking a few sips of water)
- 2 cupping spoons
- A spittoon
- A towel
Let's look for a moment at two of the utensils: cups and spoons.
Cupping spoons are no ordinary spoons. They are rounder than regular spoons (and it seems a bit deeper) which makes cupping easier. I'm not sure, but I think they are designed that way to be able to contain the liquid without the risk of spilling it.
It is necessary to have two spoons in order to be able to easily remove the deposit which will form on the surface of the coffee during the infusion. (This will allow you to taste the coffee without eating ground coffee! 😉)
Mugs , on the other hand, must also meet certain requirements. You should have 5 identical cups per coffee . When you cup two or more coffees, it is also better to always have the same cups.
They can be glass or ceramic and their capacity must be between 207 and 266ml (7 to 9 ounces). The diameter of the contour of the top of the cup must be between 76 and 89mm.
In addition to the equipment, the SCA recommends respecting certain criteria in terms of the environment in which coffee cupping takes place. The session must take place in a calm environment, at the right temperature, well lit and above all, without odors that could harm the good tasting of the coffee(s).
The stages of coffee cupping according to the SCA
Here we are going to focus on coffee tasting according to the Specialty Coffee Association. So keep in mind that not all coffee tastings in the world are done exactly with the steps that follow, but most of the time they come close.
Step 0: Grind the coffee
Before getting to the heart of the matter, it is obviously necessary to grind the coffee sample. Thus, you will need to grind the coffee slightly coarser than for making a filter coffee, but still finer than for a French press coffee.
The amount of coffee will depend on the size of your cups. It will be necessary to follow the ratio of 8.25g of coffee for 150ml of water . Thus, for a volume of water of 200ml, you will need 11g of coffee.
Coffee should be ground at the last moment before cupping begins to retain as much aroma and flavor as possible. Normally, if one strictly follows the SCA cupping rules, the coffee should be ground and dropped into the cups. Cupping will start within 15 minutes, and during this time each cup should be covered with a lid.
Step 1: Smell the coffee
The first step is to smell the aromas of dry coffee . There, you can write down how you feel on your scorecard (cf: SCA scoreboard) or simply on a sheet.
You will then have to come and pour the water into each cup and wait between 3 and 5 minutes to come and smell the smell of coffee once immersed in the water.
For this, it will be necessary to "break the crust" which will have formed on the surface, using cupping spoons. The method is simply to come and stir the coffee 3 times, taking advantage of this gesture to approach your nose and smell the aromas that emerge from the drink.
Step 2: Taste the coffee
After 8 to 10 minutes of infusion (the coffee is around 71°C), it is time to (finally!) taste the coffee! But before that, it is necessary to remove the layer of coffee residues that has formed again on the surface. Finer this time, it is then necessary to collect these residues using two cupping spoons.
Once this small step has been completed, it's time for the tasting! It is at this moment that the famous particularly noisy aspiration comes into play, but necessary for the development of all the aromas in the mouth.
Thus, you have to come and take a few centiliters of the divine beverage and bring it to your mouth. There, it is appropriate to drink the coffee, adding a strong enough suction so that all the coffee manages to unfold in the mouth.
This is the retro-olfaction which then makes it possible to perceive the aromas and flavors of the coffee.
Be careful, if you decide to drink the first coffee, you will then have to drink all the samples so that each tasting is identical. If you don't want to expose your body to too much caffeine, I advise you to do as many coffee tasters do: spit the coffee out into a container.
Then we will come and taste the coffee again in this way after a few minutes of infusion. The temperature of the coffee must then be between 60 and 71°C. This makes it possible to note the evolution of the coffee and the flavors when the coffee is more or less hot.
Finally, the coffee continues to be inspected until it reaches a temperature of approximately 21°C, after which the cupping should cease to move on to final grading. Throughout the coffee tasting process , the taster annotated his observations and gave different notes that we will see below, in the next part.
The tasting itself
To be able to perform effective cupping, it is necessary (in addition to experience) to have certain elements in mind.
The aroma wheel
The aroma wheel you see below is one of the most useful resources for a coffee taster. It accompanies the palate in order to describe the aromas that are felt.
It is an essential tool to be able to understand and integrate all the complexity of coffee and the diversity that accompanies it. This tool was produced by the SCA, in collaboration with the WCR (World Coffee Research), which has made it the most comprehensive tool that lists all the aromas likely to be found in your cup.
Indeed, by taking a quick look as you have probably just done, you directly see the wide range of aromas that can be found in a simple cup of coffee.
Chocolate, cardamom or perhaps a citrus fruit that is familiar to you...? Take the time during your next cup of coffee to try to distinguish the different aromatic notes that are hidden there… I'm not telling you that it will be easy, but give it a try!
You can help yourself with this Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel . For this, it is possible to obtain the diagram in digital format or as a poster (to hang near your coffee machine why not!) directly on the SCA website .
You should know that there are also more “practical” tools that allow you to practice tasting and to recognize aromas every day. For example, you can get “Le Nez Du Café”. But what is this ?
It is simply a kit of 36 flavors most often found in cups of coffee. Accompanied by a book, this kit of around thirty vials is a real investment, but it will allow you to train at home, every day!
Feelings on the tongue
To achieve a good tasting coffee, you must also know that taste buds are present on the entire surface of our tongue.
Depending on their position, taste buds are named differently. Thus, there is:
- the goblet papillae which form the “lingual V” at the back of the tongue,
- fungiform papillae mainly present on the tip of the tongue,
- the filiform papillae present on the whole tongue (they give the rough texture to the tongue),
- and the coral-like (or foliate) papillae located at the edge of each side of the tongue.
Be careful however, contrary to popular belief, there are no taste buds that detect only one flavor. Each part of the tongue can detect all flavors, some may however be slightly more marked in places.
You can see below that some areas of the tongue are more sensitive to one flavor, but overall all 5 flavors are recognized by all taste buds.
https://www.alimentarium.org/fr/savoir/les-sens-le-go%C3%BBt
These 5 flavors are as follows: sweet, salty, sour and bitter… Without forgetting the umami flavor which is not present in the diagram above. The latter is present in particular in smoked meats and fish, shellfish, mushrooms and green tea.
Thus, if you want to recognize a maximum of flavors, it is advisable to “roll” the coffee so that it covers your entire mouth and slides over your entire tongue.
Some parts of your tongue will be more sensitive to particular flavors, so don't hesitate to taste and re-taste to learn how to apprehend your palate 😉
The SCA Scoring Table and Score
Again here, each coffee taster has their own rating criteria. Although all have roughly the same criteria, the SCA has a very specific table, with 10 rating criteria.
Each coffee is scored on a basis of 100 points. A coffee is considered to be a "specialty coffee" from the moment it obtains the score of 80/100.
- Between 80 and 84.99 the coffee is “very good”.
- From 85 and up to 89.99, the coffee is considered “excellent”.
- Between 90 and 100, the coffee will be entitled to the mention “exceptional”.
The scoring grid makes it possible to score, for each of the criteria, between 6 and 10. It is estimated that only coffees that have a chance of joining the club of specialty coffees can be scored using this grid (we probably wanted to remove the superfluous so that the scale remains sufficiently readable!).
The visual aspect of coffee
The first box invites us to take a look at the degree of roasting of the coffee. The roast should not be too strong (the coffee should not be too dark) in order to avoid hiding certain undesirable notes, but it should also not be too light at the risk of not allowing the coffee to reveal all its characteristics.
The aroma
Next comes the aroma! The next box is used to note the overall aroma of the coffee . For this, you will first have to smell its fragrances for the first time before pouring the water on the grind, then come back once the coffee is wet.
The table leaves the possibility of annotating remarks on what one feels and indicating on the one hand a note for the dry aroma and on the other hand a note for the aroma of the coffee once wet. Then, it is possible to rely on the annotations to give the overall “Fragrance/Aroma” rating.
Flavor
Flavor is the sensation produced by the combination of the taste and aroma of coffee. For a coffee to have a score close to 10, it needs a richness in both taste and aroma.
This means that the more different taste and aroma notes you recognize, the higher the score should be. The variety of flavors is therefore essential here to obtain the maximum score. However, he knows that very similar notes are not taken into account.
Thus, if you manage to detect notes of nectarine, peach, nectarine… we will not consider that there is a rich variety of flavors.
The length in the mouth
The longer the taste of a coffee remains in your mouth after swallowing or spitting it out, the more it is considered to have a good length in the mouth. For coffee to score high here, of course, the taste needs to last a long time, but more importantly, it needs to be enjoyable!
acidity
In specialty coffee, the acidity of a coffee is a quality criterion. It should still be noted that we are looking for a slightly acidic coffee rather than a truly acidic one. We are looking for more sweetness and a fruity aspect than notes that are too acidic, bringing sourness to the drink (which is not very pleasant, we will agree...).
As part of the rating of a cupping coffee, it is important to take into account the origin of the coffee, since indeed, we expect a coffee from Africa to be acidulous. If a coffee from America is acidic, its score will probably be higher than a coffee from Africa with the same acidity.
The body
We note the body of a coffee according to its roundness in the mouth, the sensations it provides throughout the mouth. Is it rather light and liquid? Does it resemble the appearance of tea on the palate? Or on the contrary, is the feeling more comfortable, does the coffee seem “thicker” in the mouth?
Here it is the texture and viscosity of the coffee that are noted. The more a coffee seems silky, enveloping and pleasant in the mouth, the higher the score will be.
Coffees that have been dry processed are naturally heavier in the mouth than coffees processed with the wet method. It is for this reason that again, it is necessary to pay attention to the type of coffee that we cup.
The balance
All the aspects mentioned above then allow us to note the balance of the coffee. Is the coffee harmonious? Does the whole thing work well and is generally pleasant to drink?
Sometimes, we will give a rather low score to one of the previously mentioned elements, but the whole will be harmonious and balanced. For example, you may very well encounter a coffee with a light body, which lacks texture in the mouth, but which goes perfectly with the aromatic and powerful side of the coffee in question. The score for the coffee balance will then be high, even if you had set a lower score for the body.
« Uniformity, Clean cup et Sweetness »
The next 3 boxes are there to note any difference between the 5 cups of the same coffee you are tasting. Here, we note the consistency of the coffee: with the same preparation and the same quantities, does the coffee always have the same appearance, the same taste..?
Thus, you can check one of the boxes corresponding to the different cups, in the " Uniformity " section if the cup in question has a smell or a flavor that differs from the others.
If this difference seems to you to come from an identifiable problem, from a defect in the coffee, you must then note it and also deduct 2 points out of the 10 points available in the “ Clean Cup ” section.
Finally, the " Sweetness " part does not correspond directly to the sweetness of the coffee, but is also linked to the two previous parts. When a cup differs from the others, it is above all necessary to know if the defect prevents the appreciation of the coffee at its true value, if it masks the aromas and the taste found in the other cups. If this is the case, you must also tick the corresponding box and deduct another 2 points.
“Cupper” at home?
Now that you have an overview of what cupping is and how a professional cupping session goes, it's time to talk about cupping at home !
Why start cupping at home?
Cupping is ideal for training and developing your palate. Even if you are not a coffee professional and even if you do not necessarily want to train in cupping , it can be very rewarding to carry out coffee tasting sessions at home .
The more you practice, the more your palate will accumulate experience and the more you will be able to detect a good, even a very good coffee. At first, when you start to take an interest in coffee, or rather good coffee, you quickly manage to tell the difference between a coffee that is good and a rather banal coffee that you can serve in a brasserie. .
But it is less obvious to make a real difference between good coffee and very good coffee. It is with practice that you will manage to discover the subtleties of a very good coffee.
The only drawback to this daily training that you can do at home is that you will become like me, more and more demanding and that it will be difficult for you to appreciate a coffee that is served to you at the end of your meal in a restaurant… 😅
But at least, when you come across a coffee shop that will serve you a specialty coffee, you will be able to recognize the quality of the coffee and enjoy this moment of pure pleasure as it should be!
How to make a cupping coffee?
You can do a few cupping sessions at regular intervals. But you can also and above all train on a daily basis with the coffee(s) you drink at home, or even at your office.
Every day, smell your coffee by stirring with a spoon (especially if it is an espresso, so that the aromas do not remain hidden under the crema), take a sip or two, use the retro-olfaction, make slide your drink on your tongue… Try to
You can therefore practice cupping on a daily basis with all the types of coffee you usually taste. But on top of that, if you want to train like a real professional, you can also try to replicate real cupping sessions at home.
For this, you don't need to perform a cupping as we saw earlier in this article, it is not necessary to follow the whole process to the letter, but you can still get close.
For example, if you don't have 5 identical containers and the desired capacity, it doesn't matter!
I therefore invite you to reread (if necessary) the second part of this article and to take notes to be able to follow the steps as well as possible. I advise you to start with two different coffees in order to perhaps be able to more easily judge and describe what you put in your mouth. If possible, choose two coffees with very different aromatic and taste notes (trust the description on the packets or go directly to a roaster who will be able to advise you best).
How to become a coffee taster?
There is no diploma recognized by the State. However, it is possible to train with the SCA (yes again!). With this diploma in hand, you will then be able to knock on the doors of large industrial coffee companies, but also participate in the rating of coffees from smaller producers and roasters.
There are 19 tests to pass to obtain the certification. The training takes place over 3 days, which are followed by 3 days of exams. The ideal is of course to train upstream, alone or accompanied by professionals by performing many cuppings.
For example, you can get one of the sensory kits like the Coffee Nose , mentioned above, and train yourself to recognize aromas on a daily basis. Likewise, I urge you to taste as many coffees as possible, varying their origins, terroirs and flavors… The more you work on your palate before certification, the easier it will be to obtain it.
If you can, it is also advisable to know the SCA scoring criteria and especially the protocol at your fingertips. Getting your degree just got easier! This will save you from having to withhold all of their information in just a few days, within the relatively short timeframe set out by the SCA.
The requirement of specialty coffee is such that it is necessary to pass examinations every 36 months in order to ensure the ability of the Q grader to still be able to rate a coffee according to the criteria of the SCA . If the Q grader does not pass the test correctly, he will have to follow a new leveling training.